Hepatic cirrhosis is a pathologic change of diffuse hepatic fibrosis accompanied with tuberculation. Incidence of hepatic cirrhosis in our country reaches more than 1 million cases/year (mainly associated with viral hepatitis), with 110,000 deaths annually, which not only severely endangers people's health but also brings a heavy social economic burden to our country.
Portal hypertension is the main complication of hepatic cirrhosis, and is the main factor that determining the prognosis of hepatic cirrhosis. The activation (generating a huge amount of the extracellular matrix, forming the hepatic sinusoid capillarization and fibrous septum) and contraction (narrowing the hepatic sinus) of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are the key link in forming cirrhotic portal hypertension. Endothelin (ET) is one of the important vaso-active substances causing HSC contraction.
Portal hypertension is an inevitable consequence of hepatic cirrhosic after a certain period of development. The main clinical manifestations include splenomegaly, portacaval collateral circulation formation and ascites. Upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage is the main complication of portal hypertension, and rupture of esophageal and gastric fundus varices is the main causa morbi. In recent years, though great strides have been made in medical and surgical treatment, the prognosis is not improved significantly. Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is still the main cause of death in patients with cirrhotic portal hypertension. Within the first and second years of diagnosis with varices, the risk of hemorrhage is 25-35%, and most happen in the first year. Most studies indicate that the mortality of first bleeding is 30%-50%, of which about 60% patients die of bleeding out of control.
Actively prevent upper gastrointestinal bleeding and rebleeding has an important significance for reducing risk of bleeding, increasing survival rate and improving prognosis. Modern medicine has no effective measure to prevent bleeding of mild esophageal varices. For moderate and severe esophageal varices; beta-blocker propranolol (Inderal) is the first choice to reduce Portal venous pressure and prevent upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. However, due to some patients have contraindications or side effects to beta-blocker, they usually can not tolerate the treatment, besides, beta-blocker has no effect on the main causes of portal hypertension, i.e. HSC contraction and hepatic fibrosis, so beta-blocker can only alleviate the symptoms rather than remove the root causes.
Formula of strengthening body resistance and dissipating blood stasis is a drug developed by our company to treat chronic hepatitis and hepatic fibrosis, consisting of salvia miltiorrhiza, peach kernel, Cordyceps Mycelium etc. Two preparations (capsule and tablet) based on this formula have obtained marketing approval from State Food and Drug Administration, with name of China Patent “A Chinese Herbal Compound Preparation for Chronic Liver Disease and the Preparation Method”, application No. 200610023308.3. In which, there is no observation report on the use of strengthening body resistance and dissipating blood stasis preparation for cirrhotic portal hypertension.